Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed

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Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed : biography

December 15, 1934 – March 23, 2012

Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF)

In 1978, together with a group of officials mainly from his own Majeerteen (Darod) clan, Ahmed participated in an abortive attempt to overthrow Barre’s dictatorial administration.Nina J. Fitzgerald, Somalia: issues, history, and bibliography, (Nova Publishers: 2002), p.25. The military coup d’état was originally planned for April 12. However, it was instead hastily carried out a few days earlier, on April 9, due to fears of potential leaks. Ahmed was at the time in the southern Gedo region and was unaware of the changes to the coup plan. He later learned of the failed putsch via transmitted communication, which contained a coded two sentence message reading "Wife Aborted", dated 11:00 am, April 9, 1978.P. 120 Most of the people who had helped plot the coup were summarily executed, but Ahmed and several other colonels managed to escape abroad.

Later that year, in adjacent Ethiopia, Ahmed formed a guerrilla movement called the Somali Salvation Front, which was subsequently renamed the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) in 1979. The SSDF was the first of several opposition groups dedicated to ousting Barre’s regime by force.

After opposing the Ethiopian government’s claims of sovereignty over several Somali-inhabited areas that Ahmed’s rebels had managed to seize control of from Barre’s forces, Ahmed was detained by the local Ethiopian authorities in 1985. He would remain imprisoned for five years until his release in 1990, following the demise of Ethiopia’s then-ruling Derg.Georgetown University. Center for Strategic and International Studies. African Studies Program, CSIS Africa notes: a publication of the African Studies Program of the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies, Issues 156-179, (The Program: 1994), p.3.

President of Puntland

Ahmed subsequently returned to Somalia. In 1992, he marshalled forces to successfully expel an Islamist extremist group linked to Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya that had taken over Bosaso, a prominent port city and the commercial capital of the northeastern part of the country.

He later served as a co-chairman of the National Salvation Council of Somalia, established in 1997.

Over the next few years, Ahmed emerged as the pre-eminent leader of his native Puntland region in the north, eventually declaring the territory autonomous in 1998. On July 23, 1998, he was appointed the first President of Puntland by the unicameral Council of Elders legislature, and served in this capacity until his term expired on July 1, 2001. However, Ahmed wanted his tenure extended. He and Jama Ali Jama subsequently fought for control of the region, with Ahmed emerging victorious the following year. Ahmed then served his second term as president until October 2004, when he was elected President of Somalia. He was succeeded in office by Mohamed Abdi Hashi.

Transitional Federal Government (TFG)

Overview

On October 10, 2004, in a session held by the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP), Ahmed was elected as President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), an interim federal administrative body that he had helped establish earlier in the year. He received 189 votes from the TFG Parliament, while the closest contender, erstwhile Somali ambassador to Washington Abdullahi Ahmed Addou, got 79 votes in the third round of voting. The then incumbent President of Somalia, Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, peacefully withdrew his candidature. Ahmed was sworn in a few days later on October 14, 2004.

As President, Ahmed pledged to promote reconciliation and to set about rebuilding the country. However, his government was beset by internal disagreements and contentions with other stakeholders in Somalia. For example, he was at loggerheads with some warlords and government members over where the administration should be based. The President and Prime Minister opposed a move to Mogadishu, citing security reasons. Consequently, Ahmed along with his Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi and the Speaker of the Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden helped to relocate the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) from Nairobi to the Somali cities of Jowhar and Baidoa, where the TFG resided until the government eventually took control of Mogadishu.